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Shortly after midday in March 2016, a guest at the Alster public baths in Hamburg stepped into the steam room for a bit of relaxation, Die Welt reported on Tuesday.

But to his shock and consternation, he noticed that four men were already engaging in a form of relaxation of a different sort - sexually pleasuring one another in the steam-filled chamber.

He immediately reported the men to the pool hall authorities and to police, who turned up and took the men's details.

On Tuesday, a Hamburg court found the men - Ingo R. (age 75), Fred G. (75), Norbert L. (63), and Victor H. (59) - guilty of the “arousal of public scandalization” and handed them all fines in excess of €1,500.

Only Ingo R. turned up to the court hearing, disputing the version of events prosecutors put forward.

"I haven't been inside the steam room for ten years. I don't like the climate," he protested.

The judge, however, did not find his defence compelling, siding with the account of the police officer at the scene who took his name down along with the three other men. A sauna attendant also told the court that Ingo R. had been seen in the presence of the three other men.

"I have been punished because the police can't do their jobs properly," Ingo R. bitterly complained after the ruling.